Article Courtesy of The TCPalm
By Eve Samples
Published August 31, 2009
STUART
— So often, the kindness of the masses makes up for the extreme lack of
it in a heartless few.
Two weeks after Bea and Ron Garza went public with
the battle to keep their cat, Mitzy, to help with 87-year-old Bea’s
dementia, the couple has received an outpouring of support.
Vero Beach lawyer Richard Brown volunteered to
represent them in the fight against their condo association at Vista Pines
in Stuart.
An anonymous Fort Pierce resident is
working with Brown to set up a legal defense fund — and Brown will
accept whatever money is deposited into the Seacoast National Bank account
as payment in full. That account should be created in the next few days.
Meanwhile, people from around the state and
the country have weighed in to say they’re behind the Garzas. Readers
from as far as Las Vegas thought the association was being too callous —
and I agree.
The association at Vista Pines has been
pestering the Garzas for months, warning them to get rid of Mitzy, who
they adopted from a shelter in November.
Its South Florida law firm, Becker &
Poliakoff, sent the Garzars a letter earlier this month, warning that they
had 48 hours to “remove the illegal cat.”
But Mitzy remains entrenched in the small
condo, and the Garzas aren’t surrendering. Though they’ve received a
few dirty looks — and a recent condo newsletter threatened that
residents should turn in any neighbors with pets — most people have been
encouraging.
“There’s really only very few who are
just die-hard miserable people,” Ron said.
The Garzas have lived in Vista Pines for
more than a decade. They got married 11 years ago at the condo clubhouse.
Still, the association is showing no
sympathy for the longtime residents.
It refused to bend even after Bea’s
psychiatrist, Dr. Frank Trovato of Stuart, provided an affidavit
explaining that the feline helped Bea stay connected with reality. He said
Mitzy could prolong her independence.
Becker & Poliakoff lawyer Marty Platts
alleged the Garzas failed to prove that Bea’s dementia and depression
impaired her everyday activities. Nor did they prove the cat alleviated
the effects of her ailments, she said.
Brown spoke to Platts on Monday. He told
her the Garzas aren’t violating the association rules for a simple
reason: Mitzy is not a pet. She’s a service animal. Platts promised to
speak to the association board and get back to him, he said.
He’s confident he can win this one for
the Garzas.
If there’s one thing the Garzas’ story
proves, it’s this: Few things rile people more than a power-hungry
homeowners association. And few things rile associations more than
“illegal” pets.
David Shapiro knows all too well. The
retired teacher, who lives in South Palm Beach, spent $20,000 battling his
association to keep his dog.
Shapiro’s battle involved two dogs at
different times. In the first case, he argued he should be able to keep
his dog because he purchased the condo before pets were prohibited. Later,
he proved a second dog was medically necessary.
All the while, he was treated like a
monster, he said.
“Frankly, if I came and told them I was a
serial killer and a sex molester and a notorious drug dealer all in one, I
would have been more accepted than if I told them I had a pet,” Shapiro
said.
He ultimately won — and he hopes cases
like his and the Garzas’ chip away at the rigidity of condo association
rules.
“Hopefully with a little crack here and a
little crack there, eventually this wall we have erected can come down,
and we can start acting as human beings,” Shapiro said. “I don’t
know what it is with these people. They come down here (to retire), and
they lose their compassion.”
Here’s
hoping the Vista Pines association finds its compassion.
Stuart couple in fight with homeowner’s association over
cat
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